The winner by three votes of the November election for Toledo City Council position 1 declined to be sworn in Tuesday night, citing a mixup in which a number of people voted for his write-in opponent to the wrong council position.
Eric Duerst, who won the seat with 88 votes to incumbent James Fluckinger’s 85 votes, delivered a letter to the Toledo City Council at its first meeting of 2018 on Tuesday night just before he was scheduled to be sworn in to office. Duerst reasoned that a number of votes cast for Fluckinger for position 2, rather than position 1, made the incumbent the rightful winner.
“He felt that he should step down from taking the oath of office and it should be given to the write-in candidate,” Toledo City Clerk Michelle Whitten said. “The city can’t just give it to him, so now we have an open position.”
The city of Toledo will be accepting applications for council position 1 through 5 p.m. Thursday with the intention of making an appointment at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 16.
Applicants must be registered voters over 18 years of age and must have lived in city limits for the past year. Applicants should send a letter of interest to Mayor Steve Dobosh, 130 N. Second St., P.O. Box 236, Toledo, Wa, 98591.
Fluckinger has applied to be appointed to the position, Whitten said.
A few weeks before the election, Duerst wrote letters to the editors of local news publications urging voters to write in Fluckinger to position 2, rather than position 1, in which he was currently serving.
Fluckinger did not file to retain his seat during the filing week but later announced his intention to run for reelection as a write-in for position 1.
The letter was published in The Chronicle and was later retracted.
In Duerst’s letter, dated Jan. 2 and addressed to Toledo Mayor Steve Dobosh and the Toledo City Council, Duerst said the council should appoint Fluckinger rather than himself.
He reasoned that 13 write-in votes were received for position 2, won by incumbent Greg Morosoff, and that with those 13 additional votes, Fluckinger therefore actually defeated him.
Lewis County Elections Supervisor Heather Boyer clarified the issue on Wednesday.
“There were 13 write-ins but they weren’t necessarily write-ins for James (Fluckinger,)” she said. “There were seven that were specifically for James or Jim Fluckinger, but he wasn’t a declared write-in for that position.”
Because Fluckinger declared his candidacy as a write-in for position 1, any votes cast in position 2 for him don’t count.
“They have to write it in the correct position (the candidate was) filing for,” Boyer said.
That means that regardless of the additional seven votes, Duerst is still the legal winner of the election.
However, Duerst said in his letter to the city council, “fair is fair.”
“The voters will have to try harder the next time they find my name on their ballots,” he wrote.
Fluckinger did not respond to a request for comment from The Chronicle. The Chronicle was unable to interview Duerst prior to publication.
